Robert C Byrd

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the oldest member of Congress at 87, is expected to announce next week that he will run for a ninth Senate term. "He has every intention to seek reelection," spokesman Tom Gavin said in Charleston. In an e-mail to supporters of the Democrat's reelection, Ned Rose, chairman of Friends of Robert C. Byrd, said Byrd would make his announcement Wednesday at the state Capitol.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hit West Virginia on Saturday, campaigning on behalf of Republican John Raese, who is locked in a close Senate race against Gov. Joe Manchin. “Mountain mamas,” Palin said greeting the crowd. “Is that anything close to mama grizzlies?" she asked, using the name she gave a group of conservative female candidates who have challenged the GOP establishment and are running with mixed success in the midterm elections Tuesday. Palin and her husband Todd traveled overnight from Alaska to appear with rock 'n' roll star Ted Nugent, whom she called her blood brother because of his conservative views.

In the last week, two speeches have been showing up in e-mail boxes around the world. Each is a rallying cry for a different constituency. The first, an address given by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Labor Party conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on Feb. 15, is a passionate explanation of the potential need for war in Iraq. The other, a Feb. 12 speech by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) on the Senate floor, questions the Bush administration's foreign policy.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III has postponed the appointment of a replacement for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd until state officials clarify how soon a special election can be held, a move that leaves Senate Democrats short a potentially crucial vote at least until next week. Manchin said Wednesday that he would prefer to allow voters to choose someone to complete Byrd's unexpired term in an election this fall. Until the state attorney general determines whether he is empowered to call for such a vote, however, Manchin said he would not name a temporary replacement.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) is back at work after having a cataract removed from his left eye. Byrd, 82, had the 25-minute procedure performed Tuesday morning and returned to work the same afternoon, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. A cataract was removed from his right eye three months ago.

Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and his two key deputies, Alan Cranston of California and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, announced Thursday that they will run for reelection as party leaders. Byrd is being challenged for the party leadership post by J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana.

Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving senator in history, returned to the chamber after being absent for more than two months because of an illness. The 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat voted to extend production of F-22 fighter planes, but was on the losing end of the 58-40 vote.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the 80-year-old Democrat from West Virginia who has spent half his life in the Senate, extended his own record by casting his 15,000th vote. Byrd entered the Senate in 1959 and is serving his seventh six-year term. He became the record-holder for most votes in 1990 at 12,134, and today remains 137 votes ahead of the Senate's other abiding institution, 95-year-old Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Byrd has a 98.7% voting record.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) apologized for his use of a racial epithet in an interview. Asked about race relations today, the 83-year-old Byrd said in the interview with "Fox News Sunday" that they are "much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime. . . . I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us." He continued: "I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that.

Enraged over a rave Re "Girl, 15, dies after rave," June 30, and "Scores injured at music festival," June 28 If I am reading your article -- or at least its emphasis -- correctly, a girl died after attending a downtown rave because she managed to slip in underage. Thousands of teenagers crash movies, concerts and other age-restricted events throughout America every day. They don't all die. The raver did not die because she was 15. She probably died because, according to preliminary tests, she took Ecstasy.

The Senate convened Monday with white roses on an empty desk in the second row where Robert C. Byrd last sat, an institutional vacancy that will not soon be filled even after his successor is named. When the nine-term Democratic senator from West Virginia spoke, Washington listened. He commanded attention in a way that no other modern lawmaker does, leaving the question: Who will guide the chamber now? "The first answer to that is, nobody," said Norman Ornstein, a constitutional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving member of Congress in history, was seriously ill in a Washington-area hospital, a spokesman said Sunday. The West Virginia Democrat, 92, fell ill late last week with what was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration stemming from hot weather. But other unspecified conditions developed and his condition is described as serious, his spokesman said. The hospital was not identified. Byrd has served in Congress for 57 years — six in the House and the rest in the Senate.

For once, the extravagant elegies for a departed public figure are appropriate. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, in President Obama's words, was "the greatest United States senator of our time," at least for those who shared his passion for an activist federal government attuned to the needs of the poor and the marginalized. Speculation about whether Kennedy might have pursued his passion for equality from the White House once occupied by his brother is inevitable, as is meditation on the multiple misfortunes of the Kennedy clan.

Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving senator in history, returned to the chamber after being absent for more than two months because of an illness. The 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat voted to extend production of F-22 fighter planes, but was on the losing end of the 58-40 vote.

Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd suggested today that the United States move the Soviet Embassy in Washington to a swamp full of alligators. Byrd, deeply disturbed by the Soviet spying in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and apparent large-scale deployment of eavesdropping equipment built into the new U.S. Embassy still under construction, said Monday the United States faced an "alarming security sieve." Asked today whether he agreed with a suggestion from Rep. William S. Broomfield (R-Mich.

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee called for an across-the-board cut in federal spending to finance a $10-billion package of anti-drug funding--some $2 billion more than the $7.9 billion proposed by President Bush. The sweeping proposal by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the oldest member of Congress at 87, is expected to announce next week that he will run for a ninth Senate term. "He has every intention to seek reelection," spokesman Tom Gavin said in Charleston. In an e-mail to supporters of the Democrat's reelection, Ned Rose, chairman of Friends of Robert C. Byrd, said Byrd would make his announcement Wednesday at the state Capitol.